Wizard Cult - Secunda & Masser (2019)
About four years ago, I had the
pleasure of encountering the first album from Wizard Cult. It was
heavy, it used psychedelic touches in interesting ways, and it had
one of the most distinctive physical releases I've encountered (all
the cassette copies were hand-collaged, with mine ending up wrapped
in carefully-picked and pasted scraps of comic strips). For
something just under half an hour in material, it made a deep impact,
thanks in no small part to the sense of how much the band-members
cared about bringing their music to life in more than just the usual
ways.
This year, Wizard Cult are putting out
their second release, which unfortunately looks to be their last,
going by the digital liner notes (“From deep within the lost
libraries of Arkngthand this album emerges, documenting the last
efforts of a long lost cult of sorcerous power.”) So it was with a
mix of anticipation and trepidation that I threw it on to hear; while
the download copy has the album in unbroken A-side/B-side runs as an
option, I'm going with the split version for ease of identifying
specific sections.
Leading with the eleven-minute “The
Cave”, the garage-like quality of the collected recordings is
immediately evident, with a buzzy fuzz swaddling everything from the
opening sample on through to the shaking bass and craggy crashes on
the drum-kit. Cutting through most of the roughness, though, is the
power of the grooves into which the band taps, with the blown-out
vibes kind of suiting the intensity with which they play. As “The
Cave” winds down from its trip, with screams and some cymbal
flourish, it flows right on into half of the album's title,
“Secunda”. Here, the bass throws down even harder, and with all
the pieces established, it really starts to gel. The sludgy yells,
the almost funeral doom-paced percussion, the deeply heavy psych
growls of the guitar, and the overpowering bass rumble grind and slam
together, and while it does feel kind of like you're sitting in on a
rehearsal session, there's enough raw vitality vibrating through it
all to make that a pleasing experience.
“Goat Demoness” drops into action
with another cinema-sourced sample, and it's off into more
dizzily-cranked heaviness, this time picking up the pace into a
bleary-eyed late-night-highway burner. The hits come hard and
strong, the menace is palpable, and it finishes off with the ringing
of a cowbell. So, pretty great, obviously.
After a short lull, the fuzz returns
with still another obscured sample to kick “The Fourth Pact” into
action, bringing with it a slightly cleaner tone (at least to start),
but even more anger to even that out. The plaintive screech of the
strained guitar strings, along with the punch of the focused
bass-line and plenty of squealing signal interference brings this one
the furthest into sludge territory, and is sure to raise your
heart-rate (or at least your blood pressure). With the finisher,
“Masser”, Wizard Cult slide between the two tracks on a sled of
disintegrating amp feedback, savoring it and letting exploration of
the abstract run-off make up the majority of the song.
As an exit album, it's one which
certainly plays on its own terms. It also presents the band, warts
and all, high on the spirit of making their music their way,
something which feels all too rare these days, and especially in the
often over-produced realm of doom. Whether you picked up Wizard
Cult's first album back in the day, or this is your first time
hearing of them, I strongly recommend you spend your time to listen
to this one (and then go back and check out the other one, either
way, of course). Sad as I am to learn that this band has no plans to
make further music, I'm also quite glad that they're going out on
such an honest and powerful note.
~ Gabriel
For Fans Of; Bomg, Cult of
Occult, Dead Existence, Hypnochron, Primitive Man
~
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